Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Apple released no details to retailers prior to an announcement, or if they did, they had an NDA to prevent that information leaking out to the public.
One person at work, (who seems to be desperate to know when the new iPods will be out), contacted our head offices to speak to the people in charge of buying in new products and the quantities. She was assured our branch would have "new iPods" by next Saturday.
1. If this is true, it fits in with the Tuesday announcement
2. They may have been telling her about new stocks, (unlikely since we haven't been having stock issues of late)
3. Our buyers have given us information before that has never materialised
4. It's pretty obvious to most, especially those that visit rumour sites like me, that after one year, new models are on their way, and the special event on Tuesday will see them announced
5. She is new and doesn't understand how the company works. If we were to get them in by Saturday 16th, they would have to arrive at our national warehouse around the 12th or 14th at the absolute latest. That would mean going by other shipping beforehand, the latest they could leave China would be perhaps Monday.
Since no other information like this has come forward, I remain sceptical we will get them in by then, but we got the nanos after 7 days last year, so it is possible. Four days is unlikely though, so they would have to ship them before they are announced. This would come back to others leaking information about boxes shipping and I haven't heard much along those lines yet. I again say though I remain fully confident in them being announced on Tuesday, just sceptical of the information that was given. If it was genuine, I think Apple needs to remind all of their NDAs.
We shall see.